GOES-8 visible image showing the extent of snow cover remaining over the northern Plains, with discussion of the high risk of snowmelt flooding ( 26 Mar 1997)

GOES-8 visible and infrared imagery showing a cloud plume embedded within a cloud-free notch which resulted from winds in the lower atmosphere flowing around the elevated topography of the Black Hills of South Dakota (24 Mar 1997)

GOES-8 visible and infrared images of mountain wave clouds over the central Appalachian Mountains. These stationary cloud bands form when low level winds are perpendicular to the orientation of significant topographical barriers. Such cloud formations are usually indicative of atmospheric turbulence. (03 Jan 1997)

GOES-8 visible image showing blowing dust over Kansas. As a storm system intensified over the northern Plains, strong surface winds (aided by a downslope component) were experienced over Nebraska, Kansas, and eastern Colorado. Wind gusts of 60 to 70 mph across recently plowed fields were responsible for the extensive blowing dust, which reduced visibility to near zero at times in some areas. (29 Oct 1996)

GOES-8 visible and shortwave infrared imagery of early October snowfall over the Great Plains. The visible image shows a band of 1-4 inch (2.5-10 cm) day-old snow cover over southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, into extreme northern North Dakota. The 3.9 micron shortwave infrared channel is useful for detecting stratiform clouds over regions of snow cover, due to differences in reflectivity of water droplets and ice crystals at that wavelength. (02 Oct 1996)

GOES-8 imagery of an outbreak of Saharan dust over the tropical North Atlantic Ocean. The dust plume is evident in visible imagery, especially with the low sun angle of early morning (magnified visible image). At night (in the absence of visible imagery) the dust plume can still be detected using the split-window technique with IR channels 4 and 5. CIMSS-derived cloud tracked winds for the following day reveal that the dust plume is being transported southwestward around the periphery of a well-defined anticyclone over the North Atlantic. (18/19 Sep 1996)

GOES-8 imagery of wildfires in California/Nevada (shortwave IR, visible) and Nevada/Utah/Idaho (shortwave IR, visible); the extent of the smoke pall over the western and central U.S. can be seen in this visible image (20/21 Aug 1996)